CS Northridge Softball Players Play Hardball

There is a 20-minute break between games of collegiate softball doubleheaders to allow players a little R & R before they take the field again.

But it was Revenge and Retribution, not Rest and Recuperation , that the Matadors were getting during their break Wednesday.

After Northridge’s softball team beat visiting Oregon, 1-0, in the first game of a doubleheader, more than half the players headed to the adjacent field to retaliate against Cal State Fullerton’s baseball team, which was playing Northridge.

Three weeks ago, Northridge’s softball team played a doubleheader at Fullerton. According to the Matadors, several Fullerton baseball players shouted disparaging remarks at the Matadors from the bleachers.

Fullerton swept Northridge that day and the Matador softball team had not forgotten the losses or the harassment. To exact revenge, several Matador players climbed the wall in right-center field to give Fullerton a piece of their collective mind.

“You throw like a girl,” one Matador softball player called out to Titan center fielder Frank Herman.

“Hey, what’s the matter? Are we bothering you?” yelled another. “We know you can hear us.”

It’s a safe bet that everyone at the field heard the avenging Matadors. Although the public-address announcer told the players to get off the fence, they refused to budge. They were determined to nag the Titans until the start of their second game.

After the Matador baseball team scored a run off Chad Dembisky to take an 8-3 lead, the softball players bellowed their advice for the Titan pitching coach.

“Leave him in. . . . Take him out. . . . Leave him in. . . . Take him out. “

The following inning, Dembisky did not return to the mound.

Northridge beat the Titans, 10-4, and the Matador softball team swept Oregon, winning the second game, 6-2.

MORE THAN NUMBERS

Mike Sims exemplifies the idea that a player’s value can’t always be measured by the numbers.

Northridge’s junior catcher is perhaps the Matadors’ most indispensable player, but his contributions often do not show up in a box score.

Against Cal State Fullerton on Wednesday, Sims was 0 for 4, dropping his average to .281. Yet he played a key role in Northridge’s win over the 11th-ranked Titans.

With runners on first and second and none out in the first inning, Sims blocked a pitch in the dirt and came up ready to throw to third, forcing Steve Sisco, the Titans’ runner at second, to hit the brakes and head back to second.

His retreat wasn’t quite fast enough, however.

When Sisco slowed on his final few steps to the bag, Sims recoiled and zipped a throw to second baseman Scott Richardson, who tagged out Sisco.

Two pitches later, Fullerton’s Phil Nevin homered, so Sims saved a run. And with his hustle, he placed Sisco squarely in Coach Augie Garrido’s doghouse.

Sisco, a Thousand Oaks High product who is batting .353 and has a team-high 14 stolen bases, immediately was benched, removing a potent weapon from Fullerton’s arsenal.

Six innings later, Sims blocked another pitch in the dirt and threw out the speedy Dante Powell trying to advance from second.

“He battles every pitch on both sides of the ball,” Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said of Sims. “Something good always comes out of what he does.”

BAD TIMING

Tony Ljubetic has been victimized by injury at a most inopportune time.

Just when the sidearm-throwing sophomore right-hander had worked his way into Northridge’s pitching plans, he sustained a torn muscle in his back.

Ljubetic, a transfer from Valley College, made the Matador squad as a walk-on and, since becoming a full-time sidearm pitcher, has been considered an integral part of the Northridge bullpen.

He worked one inning of scoreless relief to pick up a victory in his first appearance, against Hartford on March 13.

It is his only outing. Last week at the Fresno tournament, while warming up during Northridge’s win over Creighton, Ljubetic injured his back.

“Just when Coach was starting to believe in me. . . .” Ljubetic said. He will be out two to three weeks.

Ljubetic joins outfielder David Prosenko on the Matador disabled list. Prosenko will have a pin in his injured left wrist removed next week and will begin two to four weeks of rehabilitation exercises.

LOW MAINTENANCE

Northridge made 12 errors in six games at the Fresno tournament, including five in its opener against Reno and four in the final.

But Kernen says the miscues can’t all be attributed to the jitters. Rather, he offered a more concrete reason.

“It could have something to do with not taking infield or ground balls all week,” he said. “Fielding is a pretty high-maintenance skill and the way the tournament was set up, we didn’t take infield all week.”

BACK IN THE SWING

Former Simi Valley infielder Von Herron, who returned to baseball this season at Moorpark College after a four-year hiatus, is making up for lost time.

Herron, a 1986 Simi Valley graduate who briefly attended Orange Coast College his first year after high school, entered the week with a .340 batting average and 15 walks as the leadoff hitter. He has also been a steady performer at second base.

“We’re glad he came back,” Moorpark Coach Ken Wagner said of the 5-foot-7, 160-pound sophomore. “I think he really missed playing ball.”

Wagner said he was initially skeptical when he learned last year of Herron’s intentions to resume his career.

But it didn’t take long for the coach to think otherwise once practice began. “He was basically our second baseman from the first day of practice,” Wagner said.

JOB SWAP

The Cal Lutheran softball and women’s basketball programs have a common link--their coaches.

Softball Coach Teri Rupe is assisted by Kecia Gorman, the women’s basketball coach. Gorman is assisted by Rupe during basketball season.

The two coaches have been much more successful during softball season than basketball season, when the Regals finished 1-23, 1-11 in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play.

The Cal Lutheran softball team is 10-5, 8-1, and in first place in the SCIAC.

RECORD SETTER

Tammi Adkins, a 1988 Santa Clara High graduate who is a point guard on the University of San Francisco women’s basketball team, is making history.

Adkins, a junior who set a USF record with 14 assists Feb. 22 against St. Mary’s, needs 133 assists next season to become USF’s career assist leader (the record is 504).

Her 160 assists this season left her 11 short of USF’s single-season assist record. Adkins also had a chance to become the first USF player to have more than 100 steals in a season since All-American Mary Hile accomplished the feat in the 1979-80 and 1980-81 seasons. Adkins finished with 94.

Adkins led the West Coast Conference in steals with 3.2 per game and was second in assists with 5.5 behind Christina Marshall of St. Mary’s, who averaged 5.7. Adkins also averaged 10.8 points.

She helped San Francisco (19-10, 10-4 in WCC play) to a berth in the first WCC women’s basketball tournament, where it lost to Santa Clara, 67-62, in the final March 14.

Ron Twersky and staff writers Mike Hiserman, Theresa Munoz, Paige A. Leech and Wendy Witherspoon contributed to this notebook.